My normal weekly routine was disrupted by a personal matter on Tuesday, but I still had time to get to Earlswood before breakfast. After an hour walking around Engine Pool the most interesting thing seen was the first sign that the shingle island is re-emerging. A pair of Common Terns was also present.
Fortunately, as I headed away I decided to stop on the bridge along Springbrook Lane in case a chat was perching on the fence. And what do you know? Whinchat.
This morning I visited Morton Bagot. It was cloudy with a cool northerly, and didn't look too promising. Things picked up when, looking back from where the Water Rail had been singing (silent or gone today), I spotted another Whinchat. This one, also a female, was perched on the top of the ancient willow at the corner of the field. It was distant, and I was only sure what it was when it took off, showing flashes of white at the basal sides of its tail, before flying miles away and then bearing to the right and ending up on a birch at the top of the ridge field.
I left it to head for the flash field, which was hopeless, and then return via the Morton Brook. I had one last piece of luck when after hearing two Garden Warblers, I detected a singing Grasshopper Warbler in the grass by the footpath near the top of the ridge. I could just about see it and tried for a photo, which I won't be sharing, before carrying on down the Netherstead side of the ridge where it turned out a second Grasshopper Warbler was singing in opposition.
This time it was singing from a bramble patch and I knew I had a chance of seeing it properly.
Well done if you can see it in this picture, but to help out here is a zoomed in view.
To add to the feel good factor three Swifts zoomed past while I was trying to nail the Gropper.
It wasn't a day for butterflies, but I did see a single Painted Lady before I returned to the car.
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